mancunian

I wonder what will happen on cruise ships arriving in Greece part way through cruise. This will happen to us on SS in early November. Hopefully Greece will be in line by then, but if not do you think we will be tested onboard?

We went ,on Silver Spirit inApril and June and loved it. Service and food very good. I suggest to find out more about this ship go to You Tube and type Visit with us Silver Spirit. They do really good reviews and ship tours and have actually done seven on this ship - 4 blogs of their cruise, one tour of ship, one of their cabin and one on food and eating places. In March we went on Seabourn Encore and did not rate it highly. Happy sailing

I have some sympathy with the kitchens over seasoning. With all the health warnings many people are careful these days. You can also add but you cannot take away.

We all have different thoughts after all food is probably the most subjective. However I am wondering when your last trip on Seabourn was. we went on Encore in March and Silver Spirit in April and June and there was no comparison. Silversea won hands down in fact we were very unimpressed with food offerings and limited choice on Encore and the Arts Cafe I loved including the coffee and a huge bonus they actually brought your food and drink to your table and then cleared it away promptly unlike Seabourn. The only place we were really impressed with was TK. Interesting about the bread too. On Seabourn the waiter served the bread which was a choice of sliced farmhouse bread or nothing. I guess there was a problem here perhaps the bread chef had covid.

We have done many cruises when the ship was the Rotterdam. We always were in ocean view cabins many with restricted views, but on the noise question we considered them to be good on soundproofing and noticed no difference in the connected cabin version

We too returned on Friday and had a really good time. The weather was superb and we spent nearly all our time outdoors which meant our use of all the dining options suffered and we ate four dinners in La Terraza. This was our second trip on SS this year the first being early April and on both occasions service and dining excellent, It was more retlaxed this time as mask wearing and social distancing was eased, Masks. only at boat drill which was at yout muster station, theatre and on tenders. I have to say that was all good though I have to say I felt, and was pleased about, that people were still cautious and there was more sitting around in pairs rather than large groups in most cases. Staff still wore masks. Our butler was excellent, the best of three we have had and the other two werevery good. If she was at the other end of the corridor when we returned to our cabin she would rub all the way to get m the door open (I am disabled and use a rollator, and then she would ask if we would like tea or coffee. Never had that before and she also sorted many other things. Thinking about it I never had to go to guest relations about anything. We are very low maintenance and apart from asking for a bed topper and a stool for the shower asked for nothing else, it was all about what she thought we needed, That is what I call service. I love Silversea and am back in October, again on SS. I would love to try one of the other ships but dates have never fallen right. I agree their was perhaps not wow factor but think Silversea and trying not to tun risks of crowding people together yet. Yes I too think the included excursions were good ones though actually we probably prefer to do out own thing and feel a group excursion every day is too much. I will end by saying we went on Seabourn in March and we were not happy. In my mind the two are not comparable

Sadly I have to agree with the poster and also Janecambridge. We were on Encore in March - I think on the cruise after Jane. We had a couple of years ago had a cruise on Odyssey which we enjoyed however we did not enjoy this at all. It was not five star cruising, never mind six. I classify the food and service roughly on a level with HAL with whom in the past we have cruised on many occasions. In fact HAL I would classify as better on food. There is just insufficient choice and some meals were poor. I had my worst steak ever which I was not able to cut in Colonade and our only other dinner there had yorkshire pudding which I could have kicked round the deck four times and would not have broken. We were also dismayed that they had gone back to self service buffet where other ships had not. We took this matter up with the assistant beverages manager and he said if you are uncomfortable please ask a member of staff to serve you. So we decided to only go there for breakfast so we would wrap up and with a few other brave souls eat outside and be served. We always had to ask for butter and milk. My husband did not ask for toast but got it anyway, but on another occasion when he asked for it he did not. I asked for a small portion of berries with my yoghurt and got a large plateful of every fruit on the buffet. He served my husband one day with his first cup of coffee but wandered off without asking me. This was not a new waiter but apparently a returning one. He was not busy and spent too much time chatting. We did enjoy our two meals in TK, and loved the bar there and I think went most nights as the service was excellent and we liked the pianist/singer. The main dining room less so. Actually it was not lack of staff but rather too exuberant. We were near the kitchen and everybody passing felt they should enquire if we liked our meal and would we like another drink. On one really bad night my husband was asked six times by five different staff if he would like another drink. Overkill and very intrusive. The food was better than Collonade but not really what we were expecting. I think guest relations were a bit iffy it just dependedwho you got. One girl was terrible and definitely should not be doing that job. We thought we got on well with our cabin attendant until next to the last day when our cabin ceiling started to leak. One of the housekeeping supervisors came and was lovely, got the plumbers who said the ceiling would have to come down. She found us another cabin, told us to finish ourpacking and go for dinner and someone would move us. When we got back cabin in total disarray, our stuff had not been moved. My husband went down to see about changing the key and getting help to move. He had recently had an op for a broken top of arm and I am disabled so on this occasion we did need help. He unfortunately got the unpleasant person who said no way would they issue a new key on the last full day (so we had to remain in the new cabin until 8 am the next morning. She was not helpful about assistance but he stood his ground on that. In the meantime I was sitting on my rollator awaiting his return when our previously friendly cabin steward stuck her head in and said these things happen and we just have to get on with it your new cabin is unlocked and the door open you should move along. After his insistence another supervisor came along and helped. Since then we have been on two Silversea cruises. What a difference. Good food, variety of places to eat. Caring helpful staff. A lovely Arts Cafe which is also a bar and they bring your choice to the table. A personal thing but I preferred the decor and generally thought a much better ambience. A really great butler who sorted everything and never went to guest relations at all. Our second choice is Oceania whose food and choices are definitely better than Seabourn

Many thanks

Could someone help with current rules. What are rules for mask wearing onboard and on excursions and are butlers still taking temperatures each day. We are going Venice, Croatia, entice on 17 June and have not yet received boarding info. Many thanks

Things are not looking bad for our 17 June cruise with now pier side testing and a check on You Gov showing no requirement for PLO forms. Almost back to normal. Can someone enlighten me with current rulings on masks both onboard and on excursions. We are on the Venice, Croatia, Venice Have not received boarding instructions yet Many thanks

I am very disturbed by this. We fly to Italy on cruise day with SS on 17 June. In April we flew to Lisbon having carefully gone for our test at the. last minute before leaving home on the 16th to go to Heathrow hotel. When we finally reached the port after long delays at the airport (good luck with that Les} our 24 hours had been exceeded by a couple of hours and they would not accept result. In one sense it did not matter too much as you could have a test at the port but annoying nevertheless. However the 17 june will be trickier and you will be denied boarding with no backup. Our daughter drives us to Heathrow and then drives back. She does not want to drive in rush hour round Heathrow and the M25. We cannot therefore risk getting it locally this time. So we need to get it at Heathrow except it is not really Heathrow but the Marriott Hotel. So we have to book a definite time there. That will not be easy because you never know what may happen on the motorway. I do wish SS would do this at port still and charge us. Back to Lisbon which we landed at twice once in March once in April on Seabourn and SS respectively. The airport was a nightmare and I have decided however good the itinerary or price I will never sail from there again. It was awful on the Seabourn trip but we were part of group and we had a night in a hotel so not as much pressure. Testing was at the port. On the Ss trip they had arranged for us to be taken to the Inercontinental for a light lunch whilst waiting for boarding. We were so delayed at the airport that never happened and we went directly to the port. This was nothing compared to two ladies from Australia who were supposed to arrive at the airport at lunchtime which they did then were four hours stood in the never ending queue for immigration. They were the last to board the ship late afternoon. Sorry to worry anyone flying there but just to warn you to be careful about your test times.

You ask how hey are at the port. If our experience is anything to go by at Lisbon very. Because of a delay we were ad bit late from the airport and we’re two hours out of the time limit. They tested us again

This topic is really depressing. We have done well over 50 cruises on 10 cruise lines predominately Holland America now out of picture because of size of ships. We like Oceania and have done 2 cruises on each of SS and Seabourn. We loved SS but not keen on Seabourn. We have two further cruises booked this year on SS but feel they will probably sadly be our last. Nearly all cruises are door to door in UK. We already know that we pay over the odds because of alcohol. Because. I am on certain medication only supposed to have one drink a day (OK really it should be none) and husband is not a drinker and therefore on a cruise two a day would be his limit, but we love SS and the experience so we were prepared to put up with that. The included excursions were a shock and not a good one. Typically on a cruise in Europe we might do two or three cruise excursions on a 10 day cruise and perhaps two or three using a local taxi. The rest of the time we gently potter or even stay on board as I am not a good walker and have to use a rollator. On our cruise in April we decided to try doing the included excursions every day and found it much too hard going for me. Now you are saying here that you get 100 back if you do not use the home to airport transport but that is less than you have paid for the facility. We do not live near enough to use this. It really feels that realistically from next year we are being priced out of the market for SS. Too much cash for things we cannot use or do not want. Really really sad and I guess it will be Oceania all the way. This year the fares seem to be the same roughly as last year despite the included excursions but next year they do not to account for this I guess. Oh well it was nice knowing you Silversea,